Porsche 918 Spyder On Display

Porsche 918 Spyder Concept

An Exclusive Ride In The World’s First Plug-In Hybrid Supercar -- Autopia

NARDO, Italy – There’s a digital clock mounted above the door of Dr. Frank-Steffen Walliser’s office counting down the days until the launch of Porsche 918 Spyder. It’s a constant reminder of what Walliser and his team have been tasked with. They’re reinventing the supercar for the 21st century and we’ve traveled all the way to the high-security Nardo Test Track for an exclusive ride in the world’s first plug-in hybrid supercar.

This is most definitely not a Prius.

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More News On The Porsche 918 Spyder

Porsche Unleashes 918 Spyder Hybrid Prototype on the Racetrack -- Daily Tech
Early Porsche 918 Spyder prototype hits the track -- Slash Gear
Porsche 918 Spyder: The first ride in the future game changer -- Autoweek
Porsche 918 Spyder Prototype Looks Like a Skunkworks Supercar -- AutoGuide
Porsche 918 Spyder Development Progressing -- GTSpirit
Porsche 918 hybrid supercar rolls out of our dreams, onto the tarmac -- Endgadget
Development of Porsche 918 plug-in hybrid supercar progressing nicely -- AutoBlog Green
Report: Porsche Rolling Out Plug-In Hybrid Panamera Next Year -- Automobile
Porsche Panamera Plug-In Hybrid in 2013 -- Autoevolution

Robotic Subs May One Day Span The Oceans

A mine-hunting robot is lowered from the U.S.S. Avenger into the Strait of Malacca, May 2011. Photo: U.S. Navy

Navy Chief: Robotic Subs Might Span Oceans. (Someday.) -- Danger Room

It’s been the Navy’s dream for years: undersea drones that can swim entire oceans. But it’s been thwarted by science’s inability to build propulsion and fuel systems for a journey of that length. Still, the Navy’s top officer and its mad scientists think that some recent research could help turn the dream into an ocean-crossing reality.

“I’m very much desirous of that end-state, cross-ocean, as feasible,” Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told reporters on Friday. “There are a few propulsion systems that can give you that range — 30-day, 45-day. The fuel needed, regrettably, is extensive, and that drives the size, so we’re not there yet.”

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My Comment: This is one of the Navy’s many dream .... undersea drones that can swim entire oceans.

Are Terror Groups Using Computer Games To Plot Attacks?

A scene from the popular video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3." (Activision)

The Real Call of Duty: Terror Gangs 'Using Computer Games To Plot Atrocities Securely Online' -- Daily Mail

* Claims come a month after government announced plans to monitor all online communications
* Players reportedly choose realistic war games to mask their plotting as harmless gamers' chatter
* Jihadis may even be using the ultra-realistic violent simulations as training for planned atrocities

Islamic extremists are using realistic war-based action games such as Call Of Duty to plot terrorist attacks in secret, it was claimed today.

With security services monitoring phone calls, emails and online messages, fanatics are reportedly using the online chat functions of video games to make plans in private.

Users can log into the games in groups to compete against each and, it is claimed, chat securely without arousing the attention of police and MI5.

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More News On Terror Groups Using Video Games To Plot Attacks

Game fanatics -- The SUN
Terrorists use online games like 'Call of Duty' to plot attacks -- FOX News/The SUN
Terrorists Using Call of Duty To Plot Attacks -- Game Revolution
Extremists practice terrorism in console games -- The Inquirer
Apparently Terrorists Are Using Xbox Live To Plan Attacks -- ITProPortal
Sun reports terrorists using Call of Duty as training tool, global threat levels reduced -- PCGamer
Call of Duty 'used by terrorists to plan attacks' -- Digital Spy

Neil deGrasse Tyson - We Stopped Dreaming

Neil deGrasse Tyson Makes The Case For Doubling The NASA Budget -- The Next Big Future

The 2008 bank bailout of $750 billion was greater than all the money NASA had received in its half-century history; two years’ U.S. military spending exceeds it as well. Right now, NASA’s annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that–a penny on a dollar–we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.

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The Science of Rail Guns

The Science Of Rail Guns -- io9 News

Ubiquitous in science fiction, rail guns are a hot area of military research in real life too. But will we ever really get to use them the way people in science fiction do? And could rail guns be used for a non-violent reason — inexpensively launching payload into space?

Halo Reach ends with your Spartan taking up a mounted rail gun to destroy an incoming Covenant ship. Rail guns are the basis for a funny aside in Mass Effect 2. They're used in Babylon 5 and Stargate Atlantis and The Last Starfighter. And they're a devastating hand-held weapon in the Metal Gear Solid and Quake series. Now, let's discover the real science behind rail guns.

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My Comment: An adequate review.

Meet The Man Who Broke The Bank At Three Casinos

Wilk

The Man Who Broke Atlantic City -- The Atlantic

Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. Not long before that, he’d taken the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. Here’s how he did it.

Don Johnson finds it hard to remember the exact cards. Who could? At the height of his 12-hour blitz of the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, last April, he was playing a hand of blackjack nearly every minute.

Dozens of spectators pressed against the glass of the high-roller pit. Inside, playing at a green-felt table opposite a black-vested dealer, a burly middle-aged man in a red cap and black Oregon State hoodie was wagering $100,000 a hand. Word spreads when the betting is that big. Johnson was on an amazing streak. The towers of chips stacked in front of him formed a colorful miniature skyline. His winning run had been picked up by the casino’s watchful overhead cameras and drawn the close scrutiny of the pit bosses. In just one hand, he remembers, he won $800,000. In a three-hand sequence, he took $1.2 million.

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My Comment: My pockets are empty and my luck is not that great. Sighhh .... best stick to buying my weekly $5 loto ticket.

Nodding Disease

Mysterious Nodding Disease Debilitates Children -- CNN

Pader, Uganda (CNN) -- Pauline Oto still wears her faded yellow and green school dress, but she hasn't been to school for years and she can't comprehend what to do with the pen the community nurse has just given her.

"Write on my hand," says the nurse. Pauline just sits on the reed mat, her legs pulled to one side, and stares. She has just had an attack and can't speak. She struggles to comprehend her surroundings.

Pauline, 13, has been struck by the dreaded nodding disease. Her mother, Grace Lagat, says it will take her at least four hours to recover from the seizures, and after each attack she seems less like the daughter she remembers.

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My Comment: This has potential global implications.

The Quest: Energy, Security And The Re-Making Of The Modern World (Video)

Spring Arrives With Equinox Tuesday

This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on January 4, 2012. Image: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

Spring Arrives With Equinox Tuesday, Earliest In More Than A Century -- Scientific American

Spring is arriving early in a meteorological sense in the Eastern U.S., and in an astronomical sense, making its earliest arrival since 1896.

Across much of the United States, this has been an unusually mild winter, especially for those living east of the Mississippi. Not a few people have noted that spring seems to have come early this year. Of course, in a meteorological sense that could be true, but in 2012 it will also be true in an astronomical sense as well, because this year spring will make its earliest arrival since the late 19th century: 1896, to be exact.

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My Comment: I live in Montreal, and we broke the temperature record for today.

Hebrew University To Post Albert Einstein's Complete Archives Online

Albert Einstein's Complete Archives To Be Posted Online -- The Guardian

Hebrew University releases initial 2,000 documents including unseen letters, postcards and research notes.

Albert Einstein's complete archives – from personal correspondence with half a dozen lovers to notebooks scribbled with his groundbreaking research – are going online for the first time.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which owns the German Jewish physicist's papers, is pulling never-before seen items from its climate-controlled safe, photographing them in high resolution and posting them online – offering the public a nuanced and fuller portrait of the man behind the scientific genius.

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More News On Hebrew University To Post Albert Einstein's Complete Archives Online

Archive puts original Einstein manuscripts online -- MSNBC
Never-before seen items from Albert Einstein’s archives to be revealed online -- Washington Post/AP
Original Einstein manuscripts posted online -- USA Today
And Here You Have It, Ladies and Gentlemen, E=MC2 and Other Einstein Archive Treasures -- The Atlantic
Everything Really is Relative: Einstein’s Personal Papers Now a Click Away -- Time
Albert Einstein Was Sort of an Average Guy for a Genius, Archives Reveal -- Atlantic Wire
Einstein the scientist, dreamer, lover: online -- Reuters
Albert Einstein papers show physicist as lover, dreamer -- Christian Science Monitor

New Apple iPad (Verizon) Comparison With iPad 2, Android Tablets

Global Sea Level Likely To Rise As Much As 70 Feet

Sea levels won't get as high as depicted in this fanciful image for a long time. But a substantial rise is inevitable, Rutgers scientists say. (Credit: © Alaska-Tom / Fotolia)

Global Sea Level Likely to Rise as Much as 70 Feet for Future Generations -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 19, 2012) — Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends, future generations will have to deal with sea levels 12 to 22 meters (40 to 70 feet) higher than at present, according to research published in the journal Geology.

The researchers, led by Kenneth G. Miller, professor of earth and planetary sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University, reached their conclusion by studying rock and soil cores in Virginia, Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific and New Zealand. They looked at the late Pliocene epoch, 2.7 million to 3.2 million years ago, the last time the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was at its current level, and atmospheric temperatures were 2 degrees C higher than they are now.

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My Comment: Are we repeating history .... I guess time will tell.

Pentagon Accelerates It's Cyber Weapons Program

Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon. (Reuters / Rick Wilking)

U.S. Accelerating Cyberweapon Research -- Washington Post

The Pentagon is accelerating efforts to develop a new generation of cyberweapons capable of disrupting enemy military networks even when those networks are not connected to the Internet, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The possibility of a confrontation with Iran or Syria has highlighted for American military planners the value of cyberweapons that can be used against an enemy whose most important targets, such as air defense systems, do not rely on Internet-based networks. But adapting such cyberweapons can take months or even years of arduous technical work.

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More News On the Pentagon Accelerating It's Cyber Weapons Program

US to fast-track cyber weapons -- New Age
Pentagon creating new-generation cyberweapon -- RT
US to fast-track cyber weapons -- Sydney Morning Herald
Pentagon goes on offense with new cyber weapons -- The Hill
Pentagon ramping up cyberweapon development -- Nextgov

Is Warm Weather Key To Evolution?

An illustration of Neanderthals at the cave site of Trou Al'wesse in Belgium, clinging on as the climate deteriorated. Credit: Digital Painting by James Ives

Warm Sanctuaries Key To Human Evolution -- Cosmos

DUBLIN: Modern and ancient humans withdrew to milder sanctuaries during the Ice Ages in Europe and Asia, and these refuges became critical for human evolution, according to a new study.

New models published in a paper in Science today suggest that refugia - locations that harbour relict populations of a once-widespread species - were important in determining the pace and pattern of the massive human migration from Africa, which began approximately 100,000 years ago.

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My Comment: I live in Canada .... and trust me .... when it comes to winter I am always asking myself on why am I here. So did early man think the same way? Hmmmm .... that appears to be the case.

New Zealand Police Made 'Errors' During Raid On Megaupload Boss

Web domains belonging to Megaupload have been seized and shut down

Police Made 'Errors' During Raid On Megaupload Boss -- BBC

A police blunder could mean luxury cars, giant TVs and jewellery seized during a police raid will be returned to Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom.

The property was confiscated during a dawn raid on the New Zealand home of the file-sharing site's owner.

A New Zealand judge has now ruled that the court order used to justify the seizure should never have been granted.

The raid led to the closure of Megaupload and seizure of the web domains it used.

Judge Judith Potter said the court order should now be considered "null and void".

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My Comment: At least Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom can now pay his lawyers.

How Snails Are Generating Electrical Power Via Through A Tiny Biofuel Cell Implant

Cyborg Snails Generate Electrical Power From Their Blood-Like Fluid -- National Geographic

Just a few weeks ago we wrote about scientists who’d manage to draw power from the body fluids of cockroaches. Now, another team has reported achieving a similar feat with snails: a tiny biofuel cell implanted in the creatures draws glucose and oxygen from their hemolymph (the snail equivalent of blood) to generate power. And a yet-to-be-released study, Nature News reports, will feature beetles as the carriers of these minute power cells. All of this tiny cyborg excitement can be traced back to a 2003 paper, in which scientists generated power from a grape. Importantly, all of these biological generators—except, presumably, the grape—survived and thrived after their operations.

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My Comment: A prediction .... if the science is sound, it can eventually help power prosthetics and medical implants.

Another Version Of The Supersonic Jet Of The Future

Supersonic Biplane This biplane concept is based on a design by engineers at Tohoku University. MIT/Christine Daniloff

The Supersonic Jet Of The Future Will Be A Biplane -- Popular Science

When supersonic travel inevitably returns to the skies, the airplanes are going to look a lot different. At least one design harks back to the early days of aviation with a biplane design, rather than a sleek delta-winged jet like the Concorde. This shape can apparently produce much less drag and therefore much less noise at supersonic speeds, MIT engineers say.

The decreased drag would make a supersonic biplane more fuel-efficient and it would produce a quieter sonic boom, because the shock waves propagating toward the ground would be canceled out. The trick is getting it to fly.

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My Comment: Cool.

The End Of Windpower?

Broken promises: The rusting wind turbines of Hawaii

Broken Down And Rusting, Is This The Future Of Britain's 'Wind Rush'? -- Daily Mail

A breathtaking sight awaits those who travel to the southernmost tip of Hawaii’s stunningly beautiful Big Island, though it’s not in any guidebook. On a 100-acre site, where cattle wander past broken ‘Keep Out’ signs, stand the rusting skeletons of scores of wind turbines.

Just a short walk from where endangered monk seals and Hawksbill turtles can be found on an unspoilt sandy beach, a technology that is supposed to be about saving the environment is instead ruining it.

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My Comment: It does not look promising.

The Computer’s Next Conquest: Crosswords

Matthew Ginsberg with a puzzle from The New York Times that Dr. Fill, the computer program he created, is solving. Dr. Fill will compete this weekend at a Brooklyn crossword tournament. Chris Pietsch for The New York Times

The Computer’s Next Conquest: Crosswords -- New York Times

What’s a 10-letter word for smarty pants?

This weekend the world may find out when computer technology again tries to best human brains, this time at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn.

Computers can make mincemeat of chess masters and vanquish the champions of “Jeopardy!” But can the trophy go to a crossword-solving program, Dr. Fill — a wordplay on filling in a crossword and the screen name of the talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw — when it tests its algorithms against the wits of 600 of the nation’s top crossword solvers?

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My Comment: Chess is hard .... but crosswords? Now that is going to be a challenge for the programmers.

Health Risks Associated With White Rice

(Credit: istockphoto)

Eating White Rice Daily Ups Diabetes Risk, Study Shows -- CBS

(CBS News) White rice is a dietary staple for more than half the world's population - not just for people living in China, India, and Japan, but for many Americans as well.

A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health shows people who eat lots of white rice may significantly raise their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Harvard researchers analyzed four earlier studies on white rice consumption that involved more than 352,000 people from China, Japan, U.S., and Australia, who did not have diabetes. The researchers found after follow-up periods that ranged from four to 22 years, that almost 13,400 people had type 2 diabetes. People who ate the most rice were more than 1.5 times likely to have diabetes than people who ate the least amount of rice. What's more, for every 5.5 ounce-serving of white rice - a large bowl - a person ate each day, the risk rose 10 percent.

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My Comment: I love my white rice. :(

Is The U.S. Navy's Biofuels Program A Boondoggle?

Last month, the U.S. Navy deployed the Paul F. Foster - a decommissioned destroyer now used for experimental purposes - on a 17-hour voyage powered by Solazyme Inc.'s algae-derived biofuel. Photo: U.S. Navy

McCain Sees Another Solyndra In Navy Biofuels Spending -- The Hill

The Navy’s push to develop biofuels to run its fleet of planes and warships could devolve into a “Solyndra situation” for the Pentagon, a top Republican senator said today.

During Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ranking member John McCain (R-Ariz.) compared the now-bankrupt solar energy company, into which the White House sank $535 million in loan guarantees, to Navy-led efforts in alternative energy.

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My Comment: What caught my eye was the following ....

.... But Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) pointed out that even at a competitive price, the Navy’s plan to use a “50/50 blend” of diesel fuel and a biofuel supplement would still cost $15 per gallon. Traditional JP-5 jet fuel used in the Navy’s fighter aircraft runs $4 to $5 per gallon on average, Inhofe said.

$15 per gallon !!!!! .... you've got to be kidding me. And what is even worse is that these are just projections .... projections from a government agency that has a lousy record in projecting anything.

Bottom line .... it is too expensive and if implemented will help in busting the defense department's budget. My suggestion .... go back to the drawing board and find an alternative plan that is more practical and economically feasible.

What Top Secret NSA Data Center?

NSA Keeping Details About Data Center Quiet -- KSL.com

BLUFFDALE — The $1.5 billion spy complex being built for the National Security Agency is becoming more conspicuous as construction advances at Camp Williams within sight of traffic on I-15.

But the agency building 1 million square feet of enclosed space, including 100,000 square feet of space just for computers that will gather and digest intelligence information, continues to do what it does best — keep secrets — when asked about the project.

The NSA sent a short statement to the Deseret News on Friday, but only after Wired Magazine compiled a voluminous story published the same day. The broadly researched story builds the skeleton of its story using information NSA released at its January 2011 groundbreaking and puts meat and skin on that skeleton with anecdotal data from the computer and information technology industries.

One thing the Utah Data Center is not likely to run short of: really big numbers.

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My Comment: The sentence that got my attention was the following ....

.... 100,000 square feet of space just for computers.

That's going to be one hell of an electricity bill.

Spotify Will Overtake iTunes In Two Years

Spotify now has 10 million signed-up users and 2.5 million paying subscribers. CEO Daniel Ek points out that subcribers pay £120 a year, whereas customers of iTunes store only pay £60 on average

Spotify Will Overtake iTunes In Two Years, Claims 'Social Network' Billionaire Sean Parker -- Daily Mail

* Streaming service is already number two after iTunes
* More than 10 million users after tie-up with Facebook
* Tech billionaire claims music companies will earn more throughSpotify

Music streaming service Spotify will overtake Apple's iTunes store within two years if it keeps growing at its current rate, claims Sean Parker, Facebook's first president.

The technology billionaire, famous from the film 'The Social Network', where he was played by Justin Timberlake, claims that music companies will earn more from Spotify than from Apple within two years.

He also poked fun at the slow speeds of Apple's download store, saying, 'The iTunes store, to this day, is so slow. I’m amazed.'

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My Comment: He is probably right.

Want To Live Longer .... Make Friends

You Want To Live To 1,000? Start Making Friends -- The Guardian

Loneliness is the worst enemy for the health of old people.

This week, to a large and gripped audience, Professor Sarah Harper from the Oxford Institute of Ageing had just explained what societies of the future would look like. Then someone in the audience stood up and quoted gerontologist Aubrey de Grey: "The person who lives to be 1,000 has already been born."

To think of our children living into their 100s is, it seems, at the vanilla end of the ageing debate now. Conceivably, you could retire in your sixties, become transformed by stem cell regeneration or similar, go back to work at 100, work for another 800 years, and still have a really long retirement.

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My Comment: Too many friends can age you also. :)

Smokers Likely to Quit Because of Social Disapproval

Smokers Likely to Quit Because of Social Disapproval, Not Fear -- Scit Tech Daily

A new study based in the UK shows that fear provoked by graphic images had no effect on smokers’ intentions to stop smoking and that smokers were more willing to consider quitting because of negative attitudes towards their habit.

In 2008 the United Kingdom became one of the first countries in Europe to make it mandatory for cigarette packets sold within the UK to display fear-provoking, graphic anti-smoking images, founded on the assumption that the use of fear is an effective method to encourage smokers to quit.

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My Comment: I agree .... my brother and I were able to convince our dad to quit smoking.

An Insider's Look At The 'Climate Wars'

Michael Mann. CREDIT: Tom Cogill

The Hockey Stick Chronicles: An Insider's Look At The 'Climate Wars' -- Live Science

An Insider's Look At The 'Climate Wars'

Very few faces are as closely linked with the American debate over climate change as Michael Mann's. The Pennsylvania State University climate scientist is one of the authors of the famous "hockey stick" graph, a chart showing reconstructed temperature records stretching back 1,000 years. The graph swings upward sharply post-industrial revolution, looking a bit like the blade on a hockey stick.

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My Comment: Another 'Live Science' promotion of someone who is adamant about global warming and man's involvement in it.

Technological Advances Are Surpasing George Orwell's Vision Of 1984

A Sony internet TV: The rise of 'connected' devices in the home offers spies a window into people's lives - CIA director David Petraeus says the technologies will 'transform' surveillance

The CIA Wants To Spy On You Through Your TV: Agency Director Says It Will 'Transform' Surveillance -- Daily Mail

* Devices connected to internet leak information
* CIA director says these gadgets will 'transform clandestine tradecraft'
* Spies could watch thousands via supercomputers
* People 'bug' their own homes with web-connected devices

When people download a film from Netflix to a flatscreen, or turn on web radio, they could be alerting unwanted watchers to exactly what they are doing and where they are.

Spies will no longer have to plant bugs in your home - the rise of 'connected' gadgets controlled by apps will mean that people 'bug' their own homes, says CIA director David Petraeus.

The CIA claims it will be able to 'read' these devices via the internet - and perhaps even via radio waves from outside the home.

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My Comment: CIA Director Petraeus is right .... and we are the ones who are making it possible. So much for our privacy.

Is Cell Phone Radiation Linked To Behavior Problems?

Cell Phone Radiation Linked to Behavior Problems In Mice -- ABC News

A new study could re-ignite the debate over the potentially dangerous effects of cell phone radiation on children's behavior.

Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine found that exposing pregnant mice to radiation from a cell phone affected the behavior of their offspring later. They found that the mice exposed to radiation as fetuses were more hyperactive, had more anxiety and poorer memory -- symptoms associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) -- than mice who were not exposed to radiation.

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My Comment: Oh oh.

China Moves To Control Sina Weibo Social Network

The logo of Sina Corp's Chinese microblog website 'Weibo' Photo: REUTERS

China Moves To Control Sina Weibo Social Network With Real Names -- The Telegraph

Hundreds of millions of Chinese faced being silenced on the country's social networks, including Sina's Weibo, after the government brought in new rules to track people across the web.

Anyone wishing to post on one of China's networks, including the enormously popular Sina Weibo (way-bore), must now register with their real names, allowing the government to easily find them if they write anything contentious.

By Friday afternoon, only 19 million of the 250 million users of Sina Weibo had registered, according to a counter on the company's website. Later in the day, the counter was disabled and Sina did not respond to requests for updated figures.

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My Comment: I can never understand government fears over privacy .... that they have to know who you even if you are a nobody with no influence or power.

Hundreds Of Elephants Slaughtered At African Wildlife Park

Hundreds Of Elephants Slaughtered At African Wildlife Park As Horseback-Riding Poachers Kill HALF The Population -- Daily Mail

* At least 200 elephants in Bouba N'Djida reserve killed since January
* 20 fresh carcasses found last week
* Demand from China driving ivory black market

These heartbreaking photos show the extent of an elephant slaughter in the troubled nation of Cameroon.

At least half the elephant population in Bouba N'Djida reserve have been slaughtered because the west African nation sent too few security forces to tackle poachers, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Thursday.

In what was described as one of the worst poaching massacres in decades, and at least 200 elephants have been killed for their tusks since January by poachers on horseback from Chad and Sudan.

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My Comment: Disgusting.

Skydiver Leaps 13 Miles From The Edge Of Space At 354mph

To Infinity And Beyond! Skydiver Leaps 13 Miles From The Edge Of Space At 354mph (And It Takes Him Just 8 Minutes To Hit The Ground) -- Daily Mail/AP

Skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is more than halfway toward his goal of setting a world record for the highest jump.

He's aiming for nearly 23 miles this summer. The record is 19.5 miles.

Mr Baumgartner lifted off Thursday for a test jump from Roswell, New Mexico, aboard a 100-foot helium balloon. He rode inside a pressurized capsule to 71,581 feet - 13.6 miles - and then jumped.

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More News On Skydiving Daredevil Felix Baumgartner Leap From The Edge Of Space

Skydiver passes halfway point in quest to make highest jump -- MSNBC
Test jump from 71,581 feet sets up daredevil's outer-space plunge -- FOX News
Skydiver Makes Test Jump From 13 Miles Up -- Playbook/Wired
Skydiver jumps from 13 miles above Earth in test run for record attempt -- The Guardian
Skydiver Felix Baumgartner on track for super jump -- BBC
Skydiver falls from stratosphere in preparation for 'space jump' -- Christian Science Monitor
Austrian daredevil Baumgartner skydives from 71,581ft -- The Register
Skydiver plans to jump from 23 miles to Earth, breaking sound barrier -- SI.com/AP
Supersonic edge of space base jumper Felix Baumgartner completes Roswell test jump -- The Telegraph
Base jumper and skydiver Felix Baumgartner and his Red Bull Stratos challenge -- The Telegraph (Photo Blog)

Five Southern African Nations Have Agreed To Create The World’s Largest Conservation Area

Africa Treaty Creates World’s Largest Conservation Area -- Scotsman

FIVE Southern African nations have agreed to form the world’s largest international conservation area in an effort to protect nearly half of the continent’s elephants and a vast range of animals, birds and plants, many endangered by poaching and human encroachment.

At a ceremony in Namibia yesterday, government ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe put their seals on a cross-border treaty set to combine 36 nature preserves and surrounding areas.

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My Comment: It's about time.

Google Is Now Just An Ad Company

A former Engineering Director says that Google has changed from being 'a technology company to an advertising company'

'Google Is Now Just An Ad Company': Departing Exec's Goldman Sachs-Style Rant About How Search Giant Is Now Obsessed With Harvesting People's Private Information -- Daily Mail

* Google now wants to 'learn as much about people's private lives as possible'
* Company has 'stopped' being a technology company focused on innovation
* 'When Gmail displays ads based on things in my email it creeps me out'
* CEO Larry Page on 'mission' to beat Facebook

A former Google executive has lambasted his ex-employer in a Goldman Sachs-style rant this week - claiming that the search company has been turned into an 'ad company' obsessed with harvesting people's private information.

James Whittaker, a current Partner Development Manager at Microsoft and ex-Engineering Director at Google, posted the 1328-word attack on Google on his Microsoft blog this week.

'Perhaps Google is right,' writes Whittaker, 'Perhaps the future lies in learning as much about people’s personal lives as possible.

'The Google I was passionate about was a technology company. The Google I left was an advertising company.'

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My Comment: It may just be an advertising company .... but damn .... it is a very rich advertising company.

Google Servers In The Dark

Google's new server farm in The Dalles, Oregon. Ted Blog

Super-Secret Google Builds Servers In The Dark -- Wired Science

Just how far will Google go to hide its custom-built data-center hardware from the rest of the world?

In one Silicon Valley data center, the company is apparently so paranoid about competitors catching a glimpse of its gear, it’s been known to keep its server cages in complete darkness, outfitting its technical staff like miners and sending them spelunking into the cages with lights on their heads.

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My Comment: Maybe they want to save money on the electricity? :)

CIA Chief Muses Of A World Where Everything Is Watched

CIA Chief: We’ll Spy On You Through Your Dishwasher -- Danger Room

More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.

Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”

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My Comment: George Orwell's 1984 dos not even come close to this 'brave new world'.

The Ultimate Data Center Is Now Being Built For The NSA

The NSA Is Building The Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say) -- Threat Level

The spring air in the small, sand-dusted town has a soft haze to it, and clumps of green-gray sagebrush rustle in the breeze. Bluffdale sits in a bowl-shaped valley in the shadow of Utah’s Wasatch Range to the east and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. It’s the heart of Mormon country, where religious pioneers first arrived more than 160 years ago. They came to escape the rest of the world, to understand the mysterious words sent down from their god as revealed on buried golden plates, and to practice what has become known as “the principle,” marriage to multiple wives.

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My Comment: Everything and anything that is communicated will probably be going through this data center .... and stored.

$2 billion to build it .... and God only knows how much to run it.

Ten Percent Never Delete Their eMail

One In Ten ‘Never Delete Email’ -- The Telegraph

A new study claims Britons are ‘digital hoarders’ who use their email inboxes to record their lives.

Larger inboxes and free email accounts mean that pressure to delete email has diminished rapidly in recent years. Although Google was the first to offer so-called ‘infinite’ storage for its Gmail accounts, all major providers now follow a similar approach.

Microsoft estimates that the average inbox will receive 14,600 emails in 2012. It says that consumers are opting in to received a growing number of newsletters, deals and updates, which it classifies as neither spam nor authentic email. The so-called ‘greymail’, makes up around 80 per cent of the average inbox. Newsletters alone have increased by 300 per cent in the last 12 months, the company claims.

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My Comment: I am one of those who is guilty in not deleting his mail (I do delete spam).

Red Meat Makes Me Happy

(Photo: Yuki Sugiura)

Red Meat Is An Englishman's Heritage -- The Telegraph

Oh dear. Once again scientists are blaming red meat for causing people to die prematurely. Actually, there seem to be two strands to Rebecca Smith's report, or, rather, two kinds of meat products are mentioned. On the one hand, you've got good old cured and processed meats – lovely smokey, salty, chewable favourites such as salami, saucisson, bacon and traditional British bangers. Those goodies have been picked on before, because of the preservative that they contain: sodium nitrite, which has two main actions: it stops the growth of the nasty bacterium clostridium botulinum, and it can bestow a nice "healthy" pink colour on preserved meats. It's not quite the same as saltpetre: that term usually refers to potassium nitrate.

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My Comment: Sighhhh .... non-meat is not for me.

All Red Meat Is Bad For You

Eating any amount and any type of red meat increases the risk of premature death, a new study says. (William Thomas Cain / Getty Images / March 12, 2012)

All Red Meat Is Bad For You, New Study Says -- L.A. Times

A long-term study finds that eating any amount and any type increases the risk of premature death.

Eating red meat — any amount and any type — appears to significantly increase the risk of premature death, according to a long-range study that examined the eating habits and health of more than 110,000 adults for more than 20 years.

For instance, adding just one 3-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat — picture a piece of steak no bigger than a deck of cards — to one's daily diet was associated with a 13% greater chance of dying during the course of the study.

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My Comment:Damn .... and I love my cold cuts and barbeque steaks.

Russia's Space Program Plans Announced (Updated)

Image: NASA

Russia Plans Moon Base, Mars Network by 2030 -- Wired Science

Russia plans to send probes to Jupiter and Venus, land a network of unmanned stations on Mars and ferry Russian cosmonauts to the surface of the Moon — all by 2030. That’s according to a leaked document from the country’s space agency.

The cosmically ambitious plans were submitted to the government by the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) this month, according to a report in the Kommersant, Russia’s business-focused daily newspaper.

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More News On Russia's Moon Plans

Space Race 2: Russia 'will send man to the moon by 2030' -- Daily Mail
Russia aims to put a man on the moon by 2030 -- MSNBC/Space.com
Russia plans moon mission by 2030 -- The Age
Russia sets sights on Moon, Mars and beyond -- Sydney Morning Herald
Russia plans man on Moon and Mars landing by 2030 -- Digital Journal
Russia to finally send man to the Moon -- The Telegraph
Man on Moon & Mars landing: Russia space plans unveiled -- RT

'Wireless' Message Using A Beam Of Neutrinos

A group of scientists led by researchers from the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University have for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Rochester)

Researchers Send 'Wireless' Message Using A Beam Of Neutrinos -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2012) — A group of scientists led by researchers from the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University have for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos -- nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, "Neutrino."

"Using neutrinos, it would be possible to communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables," said Dan Stancil, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and lead author of a paper describing the research. "Neutrino communication systems would be much more complicated than today's systems, but may have important strategic uses."

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My Comment: Talk about expanding the communications grid.

Update On Woolly Mammoth Cloning

Woolly Mammoth Recreation Wikimedia Commons

Russian and Korean Researchers Will Inject Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Eggs, Resurrecting 10,000-Year-Old Beast -- Popular Science

First a plant from the past sprouted new life — now researchers in Russia and South Korea are moving forward with a plan to resurrect the Ice Age woolly mammoth. Scientists in both countries inked a deal Tuesday to share technology and research that could lead to the birth of a mammoth clone, gestated in a surrogate Indian elephant mother.

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My Comment: I look forward to the day when they can bring back the dinosaurs .... now that would be incredible.

Encyclopedia Britannica Ending Their Print Version (Updated)

Lamenting The Loss Of A Print Icon -- CNN

(CNN) -- Ronnie Oldham could sell encyclopedias. He was named National Rookie of the Month in 1988 for his ability to push the Encyclopedia Britannica.

He was so good, he once sold a set to a blind man.

Oldham learned the importance of brand identity, market leadership and customer appreciation as a traveling salesman for the famed company. He also knew how to close a deal.

"You had to produce, or you were gone."

It's been about 20 years since he last sold one of the iconic sets. The information age had dawned in the 1990s, and Oldham "saw the handwriting on the wall." He bolted.

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Previous Post: Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops The Print Edition After More Than 200 Years

More News On Encyclopedia Britannica Ending Their Print Version

Encyclopedia Britannica ends print, goes digital -- Reuters
Encyclopaedia Britannica ends print run -- L.A. times
Encyclopedia Britannica ceases to exist -- in print -- L.A. Times
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print -- Geek.com
The dull but dependable Encyclopaedia Britannica bows to the digital facts of life -- The Telegraph
Encyclopaedia Britannica ends its famous print edition -- BBC
Encyclopaedia Britannica: After 244 years in print, only digital copies sold -- Christian Science Monitor
Encyclopaedia Britannica Is Dead, Long Live Encyclopaedia Britannica -- Fast Company
A bittersweet bye-bye to Britannica -- CNN Money
Encyclopaedia Britannica Goes Out of Print, Won't Be Missed -- The Atlantic
Encyclopedia Britannica puts an end to print publishing -- Christian Science Monitor
Loving Encyclopaedia Britannica -- Robert Wright, The Atlantic
Britannica Print Edition Kicks the Bucket, So Is Wikipedia Our New Lord and Master? -- Time
Death of the Salesmen: Britannica's Former Door-to-Door Sellers Reminisce -- Wall Street Journal

The Most Stunning Google Earth Pictures As Voted For By You

(Click on Image to Enlarge)
Plane graveyard: Scrapped jets line the dry and dusty ground in Arizona

Oh What A Wonderful World! The Most Stunning Google Earth Pictures As Voted For By You -- The Daily Mail

A website which combines Google Earth with a simple ratings system allows users to find the most beautiful or unusual places on our planet.

Stratocam, designed by ex-Dreamworks and Google employee Paul Rademacher, takes the outstanding aerial photography employed by the search engine's mapping service and allows visitors to his site to up-vote or down-vote user-submitted 'finds'.

The photographs are randomly selected from 'snapshots' taken by users, and after a few clicks it becomes apparent just how varied, pretty, and colourful our little blue-green marble is.

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My Comment: The Eiffel Tower looks cool.

Tracing The Moon's History In A 3 Minute Video

Watch The Moon Evolve In 3 Minutes -- MSNBC

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has traced the moon's early history as well as the latest trash left behind by moonwalkers, and now the team behind the mission has created a video smashing 4.5 billion years of the moon's existence into less than three minutes.

"Evolution of the Moon," released to mark LRO's first thousand days in orbit, starts just after the moon's congealment into a ball of molten rock, and guides you through the giant blast that formed the South Pole-Aitken Basin, through the pummeling known as the Heavy Bombardment, right through the hail of debris that resulted in the cratered satellite we all know and love.

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More News On NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Tracing The Moon's History

Incredible Nasa video shows 4.5 BILLION years of the moon's history in just three minutes - with enormous asteroids sculpting the pitted surface we see from Earth -- Daily Mail
NASA video shows the moon's 4.5 billion year evolution -- FOX News
How the moon came to look like cheese -- The Telegraph
NASA unveils video history of the moon -- USA Today
Moon History: NASA Video Shows Volcanoes, Meteorite Impacts That Made Craters (VIDEO) -- Huffington Post
The Moon’s history of violence -- Discover News
Video: The Evolution of the Moon in Three Minutes -- Popular Science

Take A Tour Of The Moon (Video)

Meditation Strengthens The Brain

Cortical Surface Shown is the lateral view of the right cortical surface. The red circle indicates where the maximum effect occurred. Top: Larger gyrification in 50 long-term meditators compared to 50 well-matched controls. Bottom: Positive correlations between gyrification and the number of meditation years within the 50 meditators. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of California - Los Angeles)

Evidence Builds That Meditation Strengthens The Brain -- Science Daily

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2012) — Earlier evidence out of UCLA suggested that meditating for years thickens the brain (in a good way) and strengthens the connections between brain cells. Now a further report by UCLA researchers suggests yet another benefit.

Eileen Luders, an assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, and colleagues, have found that long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification ("folding" of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster) than people who do not meditate. Further, a direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years, possibly providing further proof of the brain's neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes.

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My Comment: I have always had the altitude that doing anything that involves the higher cortical parts of the brain .... playing music, chess, etc. .... will strengthen the brain.

The Key to Using Methane as a Clean Energy Source

Scientists are looking at how to sequester carbon produced by burning methane in an ice-like state

Methane Hydrate Cages, The Key to Using Methane as a Clean Energy Source? -- SciTech Daily

Scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are researching ways to use methane as a clean energy source by capturing the CO2 byproduct in an ice-like state. The researchers are using SNAP to look at the molecular level relationship between methane and water to better understand how hydrocarbons are taken up and released in the environment.

Imagine a robot sent out on the prowl on this energy hungry planet looking for methane, the principal component of what we call “natural gas” and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth.

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My Comment: Faster please.

The Navy’s Firefighting Robot

Meet The Navy’s Firefighting Robot -- Defense Tech

This is wild. We’ve been writing a ton about robots and drones lately because, well, it seems that the pace at which they’re becoming a fundamental part of warfare increases with each month.

Whenever we hear about Navy drones we tend to think of underwater robots or things like the Fire Scout chopper. The Navy Research Lab s working on a humanoid shipboard robot that would be sent in to fight fires on ships.

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Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species

A view of a skull from the Red Deer Cave People. Researchers found the species had unique features seen neither in modern nor known archaic lineages of humans. CREDIT: Darren Curnoe

Mysterious Chinese Fossils May Be New Human Species -- Live Science

Mysterious fossils of what may be a previously unknown type of human have been uncovered in caves in China, ones that possess a highly unusual mix of bygone and modern human features, scientists reveal.

Surprisingly, the fossils are only between 11,500 and 14,500 years old. That means they would have shared the landscape with modern humans when China's earliest farmers were first appearing.

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My Comment: We will have to wait for the DNA tests, but this discovery is surprising.

Disease Outbreaks Are Rising For Imported Food

Imported-Food Outbreaks Rise, CDC Says -- Wall Street Journal

Outbreaks of illness linked to imported food have risen since the late 1990s, casting a spotlight on federal inspection standards for fish, produce and other foods brought in from abroad.

The 39 outbreaks from imported food reported between 2005 and 2010 represent a small fraction of total cases of food-borne illnesses such as salmonella or E. coli, according to the data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented Wednesday. But the rise in imported-food outbreaks—mostly from fish and spices—highlights gaps in the food-safety system that a sweeping new law is intended to address.

CDC researchers found 6.5 outbreaks from foreign foods a year, on average, between 2005 and 2010—more than double the average of 2.7 outbreaks annually between 1998 and 2004.

Of the 39 outbreaks between 2005 and 2010, nearly half—17—occurred in 2009 and 2010.

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My Comment: Damn .... and I like Chinese food.

Ocean-Crossing Robots Reach Hawaii

The Wave Glider from Below Liquid Robotics

Ocean-Crossing Robots Reach Hawaii, Setting a New Distance Record -- Popular Science

The four Wave Glider robots that set out from San Francisco in November on an unprecedented robotic crossing of the Pacific have arrived at the big island of Hawaii for a quick systems check-up. Their arrival marks the shattering of the world distance record for unmanned wave powered vehicles, as the PacX Wave Gliders, built by California-based Liquid Robotics, have now traveled 3,200 nautical miles (that’s more like 3,700 normal, in-your-car miles)--and that’s just a third of the total 9,000 nautical miles they will cover in their journeys.

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How Will Aircraft Carrier Crews Guide In Robot Planes?

Video: Aircraft Carrier Crews Guide In Robot Planes With Visible Hand Gestures -- Popular Science

Landing airplanes on moving ships is no mean feat, but this will be especially true when the airplanes are unmanned. Along with making decisions, autonomous airplanes will have to heed their human counterparts during aircraft carrier takeoff and landing — but can a robot read and understand arm-waving signals?

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My Comment: Hmmmm .... what happens if the operator coughs while directing an unmanned plane?